In that moment, a fully-realized King had appeared. From ahead came cries of terror. Lives continued to vanish. Before them, blood flowed as rivers.
Ye Fan’s first reaction was alarm — but then he steadied himself. The barbarian people feared death no more than they feared a common morning — they charged with iron resolve and would never cry out in fear and flight.
Sure enough, a muffled dragon roar confirmed his guess. A great number of Wang Family powerful fighters were driven backward, crying out in alarm, scattering rapidly.
“A fully-realized King-level primal beast — an exotic lineage from the most ancient times!”
“Two thousand years ago, I once glimpsed it in the deep mountains of the Southern Mountain Range — even then, it was already nearly two thousand years old. I never thought it still lived!”
Ye Fan let out a long breath. Just as he had expected — one of the barbarian tribe’s guardian deities, and it had not disappointed. Alive for more than three thousand nine hundred years — it truly was a fully-realized King.
With such a primal beast in play, one could say that all before it would be swept aside without resistance. Once it erupted, nothing along its path could withstand it. A single strike from it killed eight or nine great elites on the spot.
The Azure Dragon had been assaulting from the main southern gate. Upon its back rode the nine elders of more than three thousand years’ age. Behind them surged great waves of barbarian warriors — like a torrential mountain flood of staggering force, shattering all in its path.
A thousand soldiers charging, ten thousand cavalry surging — trampling the Wang Family in fury!
The Azure Dragon at the front, ten thousand iron cavalry following close behind — iron-blooded assault, their charge faster than any of the other three directions. Ye Fan, the Elder Patriarch, and the rest of the other three directions. They were already nearly at the deepest part of the Wang Family’s domain.
“Summon the Elder Ancestor from seclusion! Reawaken the supreme holy weapon!” The Wang Family’s people were crying out.
Rivers of blood. Mountains of bones.
In that moment, human lives were cheaper than grass. Both sides fought bathed in blood, with no possibility of retreat. There was only the choice to press forward and win — or wait to have one’s entire clan exterminated.
The four-direction army’s assault did not all go smoothly. The direction of the Elder Patriarch to the east had encountered fierce resistance. A living fossil wielding a damaged holy weapon had launched a heaven-shaking blow from the flank!
Had the Elder Patriarch not noticed in time — quickly intercepting with his stone axe — thousands of barbarian iron cavalry might have been turned to ash in an instant. Against that kind of sage’s aura, there was simply no way to resist.
Even so, in that single instant, more than nine hundred powerful fighters died without so much as a groan, annihilated within the eastern gate.
Boom!
The Elder Patriarch erupted in fury. His stone axe came crashing down. This was the flawless weapon left behind by a human great sage — its divine power far surpassing that of a damaged remnant weapon.
One strike, and that living fossil — along with his weapon — was instantly reduced to ash, not even a trace of resistance.
By now everyone was fighting with red eyes. The Elder Patriarch had no time to suppress and subdue a damaged holy weapon — keeping it nearby might invite a great calamity, and it might turn on its holder.
“Kill!”
To the east, after the clash of the two holy weapons, nearly ten thousand iron cavalry swarmed inside in an unstoppable tide. Especially the Elder Patriarch — in his fury, not sparing even his life-essence fundamental true essence — drove the world-spanning holy weapon once more.
A stone axe hung in the high sky — plain in appearance, even somewhat weathered — yet when it came crashing down, the heavens crumbled and the earth split, as though it had struck through the many worlds!
In the Wang Family’s eastern domain, whether it was the land itself or the suspended islands and sacred mountain peaks — all of it was reduced to dust in an instant. Any number of people had died here beyond reckoning.
Then, as the stone axe’s power gradually settled, waves of soil and massive boulders were sent surging upward from the ground like a tsunami, completely burying everything ahead.
The eastern army met no further resistance and pressed forward rapidly — the pace of advance nearly catching up to the Azure Dragon’s southern force, driving toward the deepest reaches of the Wang Family’s domain.
Roarrrr!
To the north, the White Tiger roared. The mountain-vast guardian deity — charging forward without obstruction, one claw striking down, the Wang Family’s Dragon Mountain vein crumpling like paper, collapsing one after another.
This too was a primal beast of King-level power — not fully-realized, yet still beyond what ordinary fighters could withstand. The Wang Family’s great elites fell by its paw — seven or eight of them dead.
But at this position too, they encountered their most fearsome resistance. Barbarian warriors fell in swath after swath — all of it stemming from a single massive blue-green claw.
Roarrr… howl!
In the Wang Family’s rear, there was kept an ancient blue-green wolf — a beast once tamed by a powerful member of the Wang Family in ages past, who had unexpectedly allowed it to grow to its full potential. Now it was three thousand four or five hundred years old and had not yet died. Its strength was close to that of the White Tiger.
More terrifyingly still — within its body was housed a damaged holy weapon. It had been kept here precisely to guard the rear of the Wang Family.
Now it burst out suddenly — killing a great number of barbarian warriors before finally clashing directly with the White Tiger in an intense, savage battle.
Tiger’s roar and wolf’s howl shook the Northern Plains. A battle between exotic primal beasts was exceptionally brutal — fur, flesh, and even bones torn and bitten away.
Furthermore, the primal beasts’ divine techniques were even more terrifying — sometimes sweeping in all ten directions, causing both the barbarian army and the Wang Family’s people alike to suffer, sustaining severe losses.
Roarrrr!
The ancient wolf lost one of its eyes to a tiger claw — and in that same moment, it struck out as well, nearly tearing off one of the White Tiger’s shoulder blades.
Meanwhile, their species-specific secret techniques clashed. Both their bodies were cracking and splitting, blood flowing freely. They were so enormous — their blood, as it hit the earth, ran like streams of small rivers.
The four-direction assault faced different circumstances. The pressure on Ye Fan’s side was not small either. Though they had not encountered anyone wielding a holy weapon, nor a fearsome ancient beast, they had encountered war machines blocking the path.
As a renowned ancient hereditary family, their prestige was earned — to have the ability to campaign against any region under heaven, they naturally could not be without warships and ancient chariots.
The Wang Family’s western section was precisely where these war machines were arrayed. More than a thousand ancient war chariots blocked the way, clashing with and eroding the barbarian army. Powerful fighters who died in battle were beyond counting.
And now, from even further away, hundreds of cold warships were rising into the sky as well — far more massive, each one the size of a mountain. For the barbarian iron cavalry to smash through — it was genuinely difficult.
“Too outrageous — why are we always the unlucky ones? Every last war machine the Wang Family uses for external campaigns is on this side, and we’re the ones who ran into all of it.” Li Tian complained.
Indeed — this was the Wang Family’s arsenal. Every resource of war was concentrated here. Forcing their way through would be difficult. If they tried to smash straight in, few barbarian iron cavalry would survive.
“No choice. I’ll expend a measure of my essence energy again.” Ye Fan gripped the violet-gold hammer in hand and swung it hard — unleashing a blazing torrent of violet lightning that pressed forward.
This was the weapon seized from Wang Chengtian’s hands. After being subdued by the Goddess Furnace, it had gained many additional cracks — but its power was undiminished.
The Goddess Furnace was flawless — a weapon of the human great sage — and the divine energy it consumed was even greater. Even for Ye Fan’s matchless physical body, wielding it continuously would be a drain he couldn’t endure indefinitely, because what awaited surely held even fiercer battles ahead.
Boom!
Before them, more than four hundred war chariots shattered. More than a hundred warships broke apart. In the sky, they transformed into a field of light and vanished cleanly.
Hum!
From ahead came the aura of a holy weapon — someone was driving it, preparing to unleash a thunderclap strike. Ye Fan and the others’ faces changed. A formidable figure was approaching.
“Not a world-spanning holy weapon — still a damaged one!” Li Tian drove the Goddess Furnace, ready to meet the strike head-on and destroy it.
But just at that moment, from the deepest reaches of the Wang Family came the sound of war horns — and the aura of a supreme holy weapon spread like an ocean, diffusing outward in all directions, calling to the clan’s members.
Every warship withdrew. All the war chariots retreated together toward the deepest part of the clan’s domain — leaving behind only endless wreckage and a field of blood, a sight to make one shudder.
“As expected of an ancient hereditary family — a truly hard nut to crack!” Ye Fan sighed. He knew the moment of final decisive battle had arrived — and it would only grow more brutal from here.
“Kill!”
Ye Fan remained the spearhead, charging at the forefront. Nine thousand iron cavalry followed with a thunderous roar — a dark mass without end. Mountains in the path were leveled. Islands blocking the way were destroyed.
Along this entire route, they swept like an autumn wind scattering fallen leaves. Wherever their war front advanced, every obstacle was ground to powder. After the iron cavalry passed, nothing remained.
When Ye Fan and his forces reached the Wang Family’s deepest domain, the Azure Dragon and the Elder Patriarch had already led their people there ahead of them — both with blood-soaked garments, injuries covering their bodies.
The White Tiger army arrived last. The guardian deity had sustained severe injuries — hovering on the verge of death, barely holding on — but it had fought a near-King-level ancient wolf to the death, eliminating a great threat.
Bang!
When the White Tiger appeared with a massive, blood-drenched wolf head clamped in its jaws and dropped it to the ground, the entire Wang Family was shaken — every face draining to white as snow.
Roarrrr! With a sound full of unwillingness, the White Tiger collapsed into unconsciousness on the spot. An elder of the barbarian tribe quickly collected it into a great treasure vessel, keeping it protected.
Ahead lay the Wang Family’s sacred grounds. It was from there that the war horns had sounded — calling all clan members to fall back and make their stand there.
The barbarian army encircled this place. Blood mist drifted through the air. Every one of them was preparing to launch the final charge.
“I had not thought — the ancient war god tribe of the Southern Mountain Range still exists. I had believed the lineage was long since severed, lost in the river of time.” An aged voice rang out.
The sacred grounds opened wide. An elder stepped forward — hair nearly all gone, yet his spirit keen and vigorous. When he spoke, it was like a bronze bell ringing — resonant and powerful.
Every member of the Wang Family followed behind him with utmost deference and reverence. Powerful fighters assembled in numbers like clouds, all issuing from the sacred grounds.
“A fully-realized King!” Every member of the barbarian tribe felt a jolt run through their hearts.
This was the Elder Ancestor of the Wang Family — alive for more than three thousand seven hundred years. Though gaunt and spare of frame, he overflowed with blood energy. That withered body of his seemed like a sacred furnace burning with undying fire.
Many of the barbarian tribe’s powerful fighters felt their mouths run dry, their bodies on the verge of shattering, their souls on the verge of igniting — such was the divine might of a fully-realized King.
Even standing there without striking, without making any move — the very presence of this being made hearts tremble without stop, made one want to kneel down unbidden. A terrifying power threatening to drive people mad.
At the same time, the aura of an ancient supreme holy weapon permeated the air — ready at any moment to burst forth from within the sacred grounds, as though one had arrived in the domain of divine demons.
The Elder Patriarch raised the stone axe high, letting it hang suspended above the entire barbarian army. The blood energy of countless barbarian warriors surged and billowed, jointly driving it.
From the stone axe, countless threads of divine power descended like silken cords, enveloping everyone below. A field that could not be broken was formed.
“Tens of thousands of iron cavalry trampling an ancient hereditary family — you have truly achieved an unprecedented feat in a hundred thousand years.” The fearsome elder of the Wang Family opened his mouth, his tone cold and indifferent. His name was Wang Lie. He had walked the path of cultivation for more than three thousand seven hundred years — his power staggering enough to overwhelm the age.
In this battle, whatever the result — it would shake the five territories. To wage war against an immortal lineage — this was worthy of the name: a heaven-shaking transformation.
“How can we compare to you — seated over the boundless Northern Plains across a billion li of territory, and the moment a minor displeasure arises, sending people to massacre our tribe in the Southern Mountain Range.” The Elder Patriarch spoke.
There was nothing more to say at this point. They had fought their way to this moment — any words spoken would be hollow. Only when one side had fallen, when the blood had all been spilled, would this end.
“Then let me see — who can pass this barrier!” The fully-realized King Wang Lie said, his expression utterly empty of feeling.
A blue-green light flickered. The Azure Dragon rapidly shrank — from the towering height of a great mountain, compressing down to the height of a human being. Wings spread, its draconic body surging with divine power — it was going to battle the fully-realized King.
“Senior Azure Dragon — please be careful!” The Elder Patriarch called out a warning.
“Children — go pay tribute to our clan’s ‘foundation.’ I do not believe anyone can destroy our Wang Family. Today, we shall kill every last one of our enemies and exalt our clan’s immortal and indestructible might!” The fully-realized elder King intoned in a low and resonant voice.